Alphabet
by bdrake07
Summary: TSCC Drabbles, one for each letter of the alphabet. Season 1 and Season 2. Mostly Family oriented, but some John/Cameron and Sarah/Derek. Ratings may vary. COMPLETED!
1. Allosaurus

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** A is for Awesome! John/Cameron.

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Allosaurus**

**bdrake07**

John is gazing at the gigantic skeleton when she speaks.

"In the future you say dinosaurs are lucky," Cameron says, her face blank as she looks up into the jaws of the massive structure. "You say they are lucky because they're dumb animals who die long before Judgment Day."

John stares at her. "That's kind of stupid." He says. "Why would I say that?"

Cameron flashes him a shockingly genuine smile. "It's a joke," She says, her voice lilting and so very _human_. "You say it to make me laugh."

John swallows, his heart beating quickly. Then Cameron is pointing at his notes, her voice hollow once more.

"That's wrong." She says, before walking away. "It's an Allosaurus, not a Tyrannosaurus Rex."


	2. Baseball

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** B is for Brothers. Derek and Kyle.

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Baseball**

**bdrake07**

Sometimes Derek had good dreams, dreams of being back home and helping Kyle with his homework, before the urge to jam his fingers in a glove became too great and the two of them abandoned addition for catch in the front yard.

Derek imagines that glassy eyed look his brother got when he stared at the LA Dodgers poster by his bed, and the widespread grin upon Kyle's face when he hit his first double.

Then Derek wakes and realizes it isn't such a good dream, after all.


	3. Chess

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** C is for Checkmate. Sarah and John. Very Short.

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Chess**

**bdrake07**

"Whoa." John breathed beside her. "He just did a familial pin. That guy'll have to sacrifice his queen to get out of check."

Sarah had no idea what that meant. But she didn't care, not as long as she got to have this moment, sitting in the back of a dark auditorium, side by side with her son.

Sometimes chess wasn't just about strategy.


	4. Devotion

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** D is for Dinner. Mmm... carrots. (Also short.)

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Devotion**

**bdrake07**

Sarah Connor does everything with a sense of purpose. One day Derek walked into the kitchen to find her slicing carrots with a look of the utmost determination on her face.

If the future leader of mankind wants his carrots sliced straight, then Sarah Connor will make it so.


	5. Easter

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** E is for Eggs! And Everyone. (Why are these all about food?)

**Rating: **K, for the one bad word.

* * *

**Easter**

**bdrake07**

Sarah was frowning, arms crossed. John had a sort of nervous look, as if he was somehow responsible for what they were witnessing. Derek stared at the table, contemplating pulling out his gun.

"Tin Miss," Sarah said tightly, turning to Cameron, "What the hell are these?"

Cameron picked up one of the intricately painted eggs off the kitchen table. "Two nights ago I read that it is customary to go on a hunt for decorated eggs on this holiday," She said, gazing at the egg as she turned it over in her fingers.

"I'm sorry." She looked up suddenly. "I didn't have time to hide them."

They all stared at her, nonplussed.

"Happy Easter," She said.


	6. Family

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** F is for Future... Someday. Sarah and Derek, decidedly NOT shippy.

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Family**

**bdrake07**

Derek feels the grass between his toes, cool and soft and tickling. After Judgment Day, Derek's feet spend all their time jammed into stiff boots, always tramping over freezing ground.

Sarah comes outside and tells him she's on her way out, and somehow he just knows, just in that moment, what his brother was to her. And what they are to each other. Family.

"John told me he died fighting," He says. "Do you know where he is now?"

Someday, she says, she will take him to see his brother.


	7. Grace

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** G is for Grave. Season 2, Episode 3.

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Grace**

**bdrake07**

The Connors had no time, no need for Grace. Sarah had no faith; John had better things to worry about. Derek couldn't wait to shovel that dearly missed food into his mouth. Cameron didn't eat.

But that night they sat still at the table, fists clenched, heads bowed, spaghetti turning cold.

That night, they prayed.


	8. Holmes

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** H is for Hat. As in Sherlock Holmes's signature one. This isn't really John/Cameron, but if you want, it could be.

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Holmes**

**bdrake07**

"So," John shifts a little on the couch to grin at Cameron. "Have any idea of whodunit?"

Cameron wastes no time in nodding. "Yes," She says, "The man with the red beard."

John raises his eyebrows in shock. "I was joking, Cam, we're only fifteen minutes into the show."

She's unaffected. "Thank you for explaining," She replies airily.

After a moment, John clears his throat. "How did you know?" He asks warily.

"Elementary, my dear Watson," Cameron says without looking at him. John nearly chokes.


	9. Irrational

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** I is for Insight. Sarah and Cameron.

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Irrational**

**bdrake07**

"I do not understand."

Sarah turns to look at Cameron's blank face, staring at the television screen as they sit side by side on the beaten couch.

"Why did that man kill those people? What were his mission parameters?"

Sarah looks back at the news footage of a serial killer, drawing in a deep, exasperated breath at the terminator's ignorance.

"He had no mission parameters." She says solemnly. "He just did."

Cameron blinks. "That is irrational." Her voice is firm. "And wrong."

Sarah turns to her, surprised, but Cameron's eyes are glued to the screen.

"As much as I hate you," Sarah says, standing up, "I like the way you think."


	10. Job

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** J is for Jeep. Sarah and Derek probably drove theirs to City Hall. Yeah... that one's a bit of a stretch, but honestly, what starts with J? Anyway, vaguely Sarah/Derek. Enjoy!

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Job**

**bdrake07**

She'll have iced tea and he'll have beer. She'll feel compelled suddenly, inexplicably, to tell him about the job she used to have, where she served breakfast to up-and-coming actors and wishful thinkers.

He'll listen. He swears it's the first time he's seen her smile.

But then it's gone. Tonight they'll have to blow up that building across the street.


	11. Kiss

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** K is for Killing. What a combination, right? Decidedly John/Cameron, with a teensy bit of Sarah/Derek for my own viewing pleasure. (FYI, this one's kinda long, by drabble standards.)

**Backstory:** Okay, so I had a little plot bunny visit me a while ago, and here's the little scenario I concocted. The Fab Four go to investigate a man connected with the Turk, and discover that he's a Terminator. They get in a little scuffle, and Sarah and Derek are critically injured. John and Cameron check them into a hospital under the cover story of a hit and run. So, this leaves John and Cam all alone (yay!) during which all kinds of good things happen. But anyway, Cromartie tracks them down through the police investigation, and corners all four at the hospital. Okay? Now that you've got that, on to the story.

**Rating: **K

* * *

**Kiss**

**bdrake07**

The bullet flies out of the gun and hits the oxygen tank with a tiny pop, barely audible over the screams of fleeing nurses and patients and the crash of Cromartie's body being slammed to the floor. Sarah's eyes widen just the same.

The tank explodes, tiny pieces of shrapnel embedding themselves in the back of the reception desk. Derek, gripping his aching ribs, has shoved Sarah around the corner before diving away himself. The force of the explosion smashes John into the wall, his head smacking the paneling with a sickening thud. He slumps to the floor, Sarah screaming his name.

Cameron throws Cromartie out a window as papers flutter through the air. Without a second's hesitation, she whirls, her eyes focusing quickly on John's prone figure on the floor.

She's there in five sprinting steps, her arm wrapping around his shoulders to lift him up. John groans, slowly lifting his hand to feel the back of his head gingerly.

"Are you alright, John?" Cameron demands. He stares up at her with slightly narrowed eyes, swearing there is a tinge of worry in her voice.

"I'm okay, I'm fine," He nods.

Cameron grabs the sides of his face and leans down, her lips pressing to his suddenly, her hair tickling his face. John's heart nearly stops. Somehow, he feels his eyes flutter shut and his hand finds its way to graze her cheek.

Cameron pulls back, far too soon. John hopes he isn't imagining the little smile on her face.

"Good," She says.


	12. Liar

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** L is for Late. Yeah, sorry for the delay, but I kind of lost my motivation after last week's episode... while Cameron's backstory was definitely fulfilling, any episode that is sans Derek immedeately gets a B in my book.

Oh, and this is John/Allison. Just how I pictured their backstory (if there is one).

**Rating: K**

* * *

**Liar**

**bdrake07**

He's the first person who gets her to eat, the first person who gets her to talk since they found her. For some reason this little broken girl, nearly ten years his junior, pulls at his heartstrings like no one else besides his mother ever had. In fact, he wasn't even sure he still had a heart until she made him feel it.

She'll lay on his bed while he works and they'll talk, and they'll talk about things he never dreamed he'd ever talk about again. She tells him about her family, long gone. He tells her about his mother and Kate and his unborn child, all of them long gone too. He's never talked to anyone about that before, not even Kyle. But of course, now there's no more Kyle to talk to.

The first time she kisses him he loves it, but he has to pull back because people who get involved with him never seem to make it, and she's far too young to even care about him, much less lose her life over him. You know how they say love is blind? she asks him, Well, you'd think now, of all times, people would realize that stupid things like age don't matter.

It's only later that he realizes that, while not in so many words, she's told him she loves him.

He feels like someone is tearing out his heart for days and days when she disappears, and when he gets the message that they've found her, they've brought her in on a stretcher, it's just too good to be true. And he sees it, he sees how clean her face is, how her hair is smooth and untangled, how there's not a scratch on her, and he knows it is too good to be true.

They bind her to the table with restraints of scrap coltan, and he's standing over her, arms crossed, when she opens her eyes. John? she says, a smile breaking over her face. John? It's me, Allison.

He stares at her, his eyes hard and blue and piercing. He uncrosses his arms; there's a switchblade in one of his hands. She tries to mimic fear but is just comes off as comical and posed. He flicks the blade open.

"No, it's not." He says.


	13. Martyr

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** M is for Magnificent! Which is what tonight's episode was. Pure wonderfulness.

P.S. Did anyone else get the feeling that someone was going to die at the end? I just got this REALLY paraniod vibe that Derek was gonna kick it. Thank GOD he didn't.

P.P.S. In case this one is a little confusing, it's just Derek reflecting on his possible death, because he knows he'd do _anything_ to save John and the cause they believe in.

**Rating: K**

* * *

**Martyr**

**bdrake07**

Derek has just finished telling John about Bedell when he turns a little in his seat and sees with surprise that his nephew's eyes are filling with tears. He turns his own eyes back to the road awkwardly, feeling like he has invaded something private, and something else is tightening deep within him, an aching in his chest.

"We all die for you, John." He says.

He wonders how true that is.


	14. Noose

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** N is for Normally I would have updated sooner, but I got on a massive Chuck kick and couldn't really be bothered. This one's really short, and actually just features John. Enjoy!

**Rating: K**

* * *

**Noose**

**bdrake07**

There it goes, around his neck, tightening. It's always been there, since the moment he was born. He's just been feeling the chafes and burns a little more noticeably lately.

The future leader of mankind doesn't exactly see it as destiny. It's just a little too much like punishment.


	15. Origins

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** O is for Over... a little Judgement Day for ya. And to compensate for my lack of updates, two in the same night!! Allison-Centric.

**Rating: K**

* * *

**Origins**

**bdrake07**

Allison from Palmdale was from, well, Palmdale, and she had a giant golden retriever named Lucky that liked to sleep on her bed. She hadn't been lying when she'd said she'd had a sister- an older sister who had majored in engineering at Stanford, a smart, smart girl. Allison from Palmdale, sixteen years old, had lived with her parents in the quintessential suburban home, with posters of classic musicians like Bob Dylan and Loggins & Messina papering her wall.

When the bombs dropped, Allison from Palmdale had been on the phone with her sister. Her mother had been outside, watering her plants, her father out getting a few extra hours in at the office. Lucky had sat dutifully by her side, as he always had, always would.

Later, after hearing the screams and static from the other end of the phone, after her mother had run frantically down the street, her legs hopelessly carrying her downtown to her husband, Allison from Palmdale huddled in the basement, her hands clinging tightly to Lucky's golden fur.

Cameron opened her eyes. None of that was important right now.


	16. Paradox

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** P is for Park. John and (Little) Kyle. Short.

**Rating: K**

* * *

**Paradox**

**bdrake07**

John knew what he was staring at. An impossibility. Ice cream dripping down his fingers, this couldn't be happening...

Kyle took the ball from his hands with a little smile. John finally felt himself breathe again, watching his father run away through the grass.


	17. Quote

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC. Or _Hamlet_.

**A/N:** Q is for Queasy, as in, John's not feeling too well when he thinks about the implied Sarah/Derek.

**Rating:** K

* * *

**Quote**

**bdrake07**

"If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,

And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame

When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,

Since frost itself as actively doth burn

And reason panders will."

John doesn't like _Hamlet_. Not because of Shakespeare's tricky language or depressing plotline. Not because his teacher gave away the ending before they'd even started Act I. Not because Cameron has taken to reciting the "to be or not to be" speech constantly, with the excuse that she's "discovering herself" or something.

No, John hates _Hamlet_ because Claudius marries his dead brother's widow, and John thinks that's just a little too close to real life.


	18. Rivalry

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** R is for Riley. Screw her. John/Cameron.

**Backstory:** Not much on this one, just know that John is laid up in bed because he got injured on a mission or something.

**Rating:** K+

* * *

**Rivalry**

**bdrake07**

One day Riley shows up at the door with a paper bag of chicken noodle soup in her hand, demanding to know why John hasn't been returning her calls.

"He's sick." Cameron says flatly. Riley rolls her eyes.

"I figured, that's why I brought the soup." She drums her fingers on the doorframe. Cameron can feel the vibrations through her toes. "Can I see him? I'm not afraid of catching a cold."

Cameron, transfixed by Riley's fast-moving fingers, snaps her head up to look at the other girl.

"John doesn't want to see anyone right now."

Riley sighs, straightening and handing Cameron the paper bag.

"Fine, whatever. Can you give him this? And tell him to pick up his damn phone."

Cameron throws the bag away on her way up to John's room.


	19. Sandwich

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** S is for Season 2! Premiere. Sarah and John. (OMG, another one about food?!)

**Rating:** K

* * *

**Sandwich**

**bdrake07**

There was no cake.

There was only the smell of burnt flesh, and of exhaust and gasoline, and the straining sting of an open wound.

But at the end of the day, there Sarah was, with a sandwich on a plate and those comforting wishes and words.

"It'll have to be enough," She said.

It was. PB&J had never tasted so good.


	20. Truth

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** T is for Troubled. A little John piece for ya, based on the last episode. SPOILER! JOHN KILLED SARKISIAN! (Psh. Everyone and their mother saw that one coming.)

**Rating:** K

* * *

**Truth**

**bdrake07**

His life was made up of secrets. He had more fake ids than he could count; he'd had a fake last name beginning with almost every letter of the alphabet. He threw away clothes every time they moved because they weren't in style. His mom wasn't really a waitress; Cameron wasn't really his sister. Judgment Day was coming. These were secrets he was used to keeping.

But one day, he found himself faced with a secret that was quite hard to conceal. It kept gnawing at his insides, his gut sick from the bubbling guilt. It was the truth, and it destroyed him inside.

Because the truth was, John Baum couldn't become John Connor until he'd killed.


	21. Unbreakable

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** U is for Uranium. Gotta love that nuclear waste! Sarah-Centric.

**Rating:** K+

* * *

**Unbreakable**

**bdrake07**

She's thought a lot lately about ifs and maybes, could haves and should haves. If only she hadn't been destined to give birth to the savior of mankind. Maybe she could have had a normal life- married, living in a house with a white picket fence. She could have had this. She should have had that.

The prospect of dying was so frightening to her. She faced death everyday. She'd been stabbed and shot at and chased more times than she could count, but this was different.

She couldn't run away from this. It was inside her.

But this is the sort of thing that makes you fearless. Even as she watched her hair float down in clumps into the sink, even as she watched her cheeks getting hollow and dark. She watched John's fear and Derek's anger mount, but all she could think about was seizing the day, living life to the fullest. It was in her nature.

She was Sarah Connor. She was hard as nuclear nails.


	22. Valor

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** V for Vendetta! No, jk. This has nothing to do with that. Sarah/Derek, centered around the last episode.

**P.S.** Hope y'all had a good halloween!

**Rating:** K+

* * *

**Valor**

**bdrake07**

It's several days after the last time he saw Jesse when Derek finally tells Sarah the truth. He didn't want to tell her- he felt so weak. She just seems to see right through him.

"It was you, wasn't it." It's not a question. She had just brought it up again, something about how she was still worried about John. Derek curses himself for taking so long to reply, curses himself for confirming her suspicions.

Sarah looks at him. She's just standing there, with her arms hanging loosely by her sides, appearing almost defeated.

"Why would you try to kill yourself, Derek?" She asks him quietly, almost like she's talking to herself. He looks at her incredulously, finding himself growing angry even though he knows he's got no reason.

"Why do you think?" He snaps. She looks taken aback. Hell, what is with her? This isn't Sarah Connor.

There is silence for a long time before she finally speaks. It's blunt, unexpected, unlike her.

"You're the strongest person I know." She says, before walking away.

Derek can only stare after her, frozen in place by her words. He thinks back (or forward, because now his sense of time is all screwed up) to sitting in that bunker with Kyle, his little brother holding his talisman- the picture of Sarah Connor. She's the mascot, what they believe in. So much more powerful than that lion on the wall.

No, Derek is not strong. Not by himself.

But he could be, now that he has something to believe in.


	23. Whisper

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** W is for Whoa. Two Sarah/Dereks in a row?! What can I say- love the pairing. (Jesse can just go die.)

**Backstory: **Say John got hurt on a misson (companion piece to Rivalry? Sure) but in the process he saved everyone's lives. Oh, and Derek got hit on the head.

**Rating:** K+

* * *

**Whisper**

**bdrake07**

"John's asleep," Sarah says quietly, shutting the door behind her as Derek leans against the hallway wall, arms crossed.

"Tough day," He replies. Sarah looks down.

"You should be proud of him," Derek tells her boldly. She meets his eyes; her gaze is less than fierce. It throws him off a little.

"It took balls, what he did today." He continues carefully. "It was stupid, but he saved our lives."

Sarah narrows her eyes and he thinks for a moment he's said too much, but then she reaches up and touches the cut on his forehead, fingers ghosting over his skin.

"How's your head?" She asks him.

Derek doesn't move. He doesn't say anything.

Sarah blinks once before her arm drops and she walks away.


	24. X Ray

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** X is for... yeah, I got nothing. Sorry for the INCREDIBLY long wait. John/Cameron, I guess. Well, just some vague Cameron jealousy.

**Rating:** K

* * *

**X-Ray**

**bdrake07**

Last week, John drove Riley to the doctor. She had said she needed her monthly check-up, and John, enamored and obedient, had jumped at the chance to chauffeur her there.

Riley had complained and complained of a pain in her leg (probably caused from running away from a homicidal robot from the future, she told John) and asked the doctor to take an X-Ray. As it turned out, there was nothing wrong with Riley's leg. Cameron decided she had just been imagining it.

Cameron has files on medical procedures, just in case- how to perform an X-Ray, do a quick and spontaneous appendectomy- just in case. But she asks John anyway, how do they work?

"They shoot radiation through your leg," John says shortly, "But it doesn't travel through the bone, so they get a clear picture. Didn't you know that?"

She does. She has been thinking about it a lot lately. What if someone did an X-Ray on her?

Cameron is afraid of what they will find.


	25. Young

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** Y is for Yes, you waited this long for this piece of crap. Sorry.

(Sarah thinks about John's future.)

**Rating:** K

* * *

**Young**

**bdrake07**

You think about this everyday, it circles in your head like a shark that's caught the scent of blood, waiting, waiting for its chance to just appear and haunt you once again.

You think about this everyday. You think about how he is so, so young.


	26. Zenith

**Disclaimer: **Don't own TSCC.

**A/N:** Z is for Zippity do dah, I'm done!!! Thank you all SOOO much for your reviews, especially **Seriyah**, **JovialShogun**, and **A. Annie .N **for your relatively consistent support. Without all you guys who reviewed I never would have finished this. Thanks for your encouragement and support, and for making this my most reviewed and only successful multi-chapter fic. You guys rock!!

I wanted to end on a happy note, but it just didn't happen. Apparently, I don't write happy. This is Cameron introspective (wishful thinking on my part), with some slight hints of John/Cameron.

**Rating:** K

* * *

**Zenith**

**bdrake07**

She doesn't want to admit it, but lately every shot that tears through her body or metal hand that clutches her throat starts to hurt a little bit more, starts sending more than just signals to her chip that could be interpreted as pain.

And she doesn't want to admit it, but the worry in John's eyes is getting a little too piercing, and the disdain in Derek's has actually become biting (a new kind of pain), and Sarah's guarding gaze has her wondering for more than a millisecond just what she did wrong.

But she can't admit, she can't hurt, she can't wonder, and she certainly shouldn't feel anything, anything inside her chest besides a stone heart and a steel ribcage—not this hollow sadness, or warm happiness, or gnawing worry. And she certainly shouldn't be able to think; she shouldn't refer to herself as "I" instead of "Cameron: insert model number here".

And now that she can feel that makes it all the worse, because she's aware that John thinks she's lying when she tries to tell him all of this, and that makes her chest hurt and that isn't allowed. She doesn't want to admit it, but all these new found feelings just bring more pain and fright, and it's a never ending cycle.

She is scared, so, so scared that this is it. This is as good as it will get. This is the highest point.

And from the highest point, the only place you can go is down.


End file.
